The Wonder of It

When we really think about the Incarnation (God taking on flesh), it should stir wonder in us. In The God Who Became Human, Graham Cole summarizes his hope for the reader.

“My hope is that by the time the reader closes this study he or she will have a deeper sense of the astonishing providence of God that subtly prepared the way for the mystery of the incarnation, a greater appreciation of the magnitude of the divine stooping that in the incarnation saw God weep human tears, and a profounder joy at the depth of the love of God that sent no surrogate as the final revelation but the beloved Son who became flesh.”

This quote reminds us that the Christmas story is an astonishing story. It carries weight and wonder because of what it would actually mean if God stooped to take on a human nature and body through the birth of Jesus. Pause to think of the wonder and astonishment seen in the incarnation of Jesus and the story of the gospel.

Wonder and Astonishment…

• For God’s patience and mercy towards humanity in their constant corruption and rebellion
• For God’s wisdom in preparing Israel for a coming Messiah through types, shadows, and ceremonies that all found their perfect and unique fulfillment only in Jesus
• For God’s providence leading to when, where, how, and to whom Jesus arrived
• For God’s condescension in “the divine stooping” where the infinite one becomes an infant, where the transcendent king humbles himself with all the frailty and limits of human flesh
• For God’s love that would send his only son to redeem and reconcile us back to him
• For God’s compassion in rescuing the undeserving and undesirable
• For God’s grace that would do all of this freely to those who could never pay him back or earn this gift
• For God’s might in defeating the great evils enslaving humanity: sin, death, and the devil
• For God’s kindness in revealing himself more clearly and tangibly in the incarnation through a divine-human mediator
• For God’s glory and purposes that he would not allow to be thwarted or subverted
• For God’s faithfulness to keep his word and come true on all his promises through the virgin birth, perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and exalting ascension of Jesus
• For God’s nearness in entering our world and taking on a human nature to be united to us forever
• For God’s justice and holiness in showing the seriousness of human sin at the cost of Jesus’ very life
• For God’s righteousness seen in the 2nd Adam and true Israel who always succeeded where they failed
• For God’s goodness in causing this good news of a Savior to be written down, preserved, passed down, and made known to us in the Bible